dear thereminists
I was wondering why your instrument sounds always awkward to my ears and I was thinking about it while listening to electro-music 2007 and finally I realized why:
I have been trained as a piano player so I am used to a very different user inteface where you hit a key and hear a sound (always the same one unless you change tuning )
I'm a control freak so I tend to prefer discrete user interfaces where a pitch is assigned to a key, a button, a pedal, whatever
So, keep using theremins and don't bother with control freaks like me
Thanks for your attention _________________homepage - blog - forum - youtube

Quote:

Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex - Frank Zappa

Yes but Seraph, The theremin is the ultimate multi-temperament microtonal instrument. I think you should take up the Theremin.

Seriously, one of the strange aspects about the Theremin is how it changes one's sense of difficult vs. easy. A passage that one could play with one's had tied behind one's back on a keyboard may require hours of practice to manage on a theremin. Just about EVERYTHING is challenging on a theremin and a thereminist (or a composer for theremin) is forced to make the most of perhaps little more than a few notes.

I'm not ready to give up keyboard playing, however the focus that goes into Theremin-playing has transferred to my keyboard playing and I feel that, in some ways, I have learned to "do more with less" when I am playing a keyboard.

Another irony is that to perform on a Theremin requires one to be quite a "control freak". Again, to render an accurate in-tune performance requires one to put every aspect in one's favor. The monitor placement and balances are critical for a great Theremin performance._________________-- Kevinhttp://kevinkissinger.com

Kevin,
thanks for your reply. I agree with everything you say. Unfortunately I missed your performance on Friday at electro-music 2007

Quote:

the focus that goes into Theremin-playing has transferred to my keyboard playing and I feel that, in some ways, I have learned to "do more with less" when I am playing a keyboard.

I feel something similar when experimenting with alternate tunings. I enter an unknown territory where I have to "watch my steps" carefully because I am not on the usual path and that reverberates, somehow, even when I get back to 12tET._________________homepage - blog - forum - youtube

Quote:

Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex - Frank Zappa

I'm a control freak so I tend to prefer discrete user interfaces where a pitch is assigned to a key, a button, a pedal, whatever

Theremins don't have a user interface in the conventional sense. The player is exactly a part of the circuit. The player's hands are capacitor plates that complete the half-capacitors called the "antennas." There are no buttons or pedals or whatever to come between you and the generation of sound - nothing to put you at a remove. You and the theremin are electrically integrated - a cybernetic organism if you want to put a sci-fi spin on it.

It appeals to me as a control freak because instead of thinking about controlling some device or other the focus is on controlling my own hands to synthesize sounds; my volume hand shaping the envelope while the waves of my pitch hand modulate the frequency.

"Some thoughts have a certain sound, that being the equivalent to a form."Paul Atreides in David Lynch's adaptation of Dune, describing the use of the Weirding Module.

It is possible that a lot of theremin "sounds always awkward to my ears" because it is not uncommon for thereminists to play a little flat. (Not Kevin, of course!) I am told that if your sense of pitch is particularly finely tuned to, say, 12TET it can be quite off-putting.

You and the theremin are electrically integrated - a cybernetic organism if you want to put a sci-fi spin on it.

WOW! I had never thought about that It sounds like an excellent definition.
My preference goes to a compositional device like a keyboard and not toward a performance device like the theremin, though.
I prefer to sound awkward for my compositions than for my performance _________________homepage - blog - forum - youtube

Quote:

Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex - Frank Zappa

Yes but Seraph, The theremin is the ultimate multi-temperament microtonal instrument. I think you should take up the Theremin.

Seriously, one of the strange aspects about the Theremin is how it changes one's sense of difficult vs. easy. A passage that one could play with one's had tied behind one's back on a keyboard may require hours of practice to manage on a theremin. Just about EVERYTHING is challenging on a theremin and a thereminist (or a composer for theremin) is forced to make the most of perhaps little more than a few notes.

I'm not ready to give up keyboard playing, however the focus that goes into Theremin-playing has transferred to my keyboard playing and I feel that, in some ways, I have learned to "do more with less" when I am playing a keyboard.

Another irony is that to perform on a Theremin requires one to be quite a "control freak". Again, to render an accurate in-tune performance requires one to put every aspect in one's favor. The monitor placement and balances are critical for a great Theremin performance.

I am a piano/keyboard player, and I am looking at getting a Moog Theremin, I am a little concerned that I would have no resources and have to train myself, probably making silly mistakes as I go that others have already figured out. No Theremin technique books at the local music store..._________________Steve.

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